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Sunday, June 16, 2013

Today in Labor History—June 16

Chartist riot, 1838

June 16, 1836
– The London Working Men's Association was formed, launching the
Chartist movement.The Chartists took their name from the People's
Charter, which demanded universal suffrage for men, regardless of social
class. (From the Daily Bleed)

Berlin Revolutionaries

June 16, 1848
– The Berlin arsenal was captured by rebellious citizens. The "German
Revolutions" of 1848 swept across 50 European states, mostly affiliated
with the German Confederation and Austria. While the middle classes were
fighting for a unified German state and increased civil liberties, the
working class had more revolutionary aspirations. Participants in the
revolution included communist and anarchist revolutionaries like Marx,
Engels and Mikhail Bakunin, as well as the composer Wagner. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 16, 1869
– In the small mining town of Ricamarie, France, troops were called in
to suppress a workers' strike, opening fire on demonstrators protesting
the arrest of 40 workers, killing 14 (including a 17-month-old girl in
her mother’s arms) and wounding 60 others (including 10 children). (From
the Daily Bleed)

June 16, 1918
–Eugene Debs delivered his famous Canton, Ohio anti-war Speech. America
was at war with Germany, at the time, and radicals were being routinely
rounded up and jailed, often illegally, when Debs gave this speech. The
new Espionage Act was being used to prosecute people for their
opposition to the war and Deb’s speech was used to make the case that he
had violated the Act. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 16, 1920 – The U.S. Marines began fighting in Haiti to defend U.S. “interests” there. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 16, 1933 -
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Industrial Recovery
Act, which recognized the right of workers to organize and bargain
collectively through unions. The legislation was later found
unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. However, it helped inspire a
wave of union organizing and pave the way for the National Labor
Relations Act, which was passed in 1935. (From Workday Minnesota)

International Brigadiers at the Battle of Belchite

June 16, 1937
– The Trotskyist POUM, a significant constituent of the Spanish
Republican forces (and the group with which George Orwell fought) was
outlawed and its militants persecuted by the counter-revolutionary
Stalinists and the Republic's police, thus making the Republic and the
Stalinists more vulnerable to the fascists. (From the Daily Bleed).
For a good fictionalization of the Spanish war against the fascists,
and the POUM's and anarchist's betrayal by the Stalinists, see Ken
Loach's Tierra y Libertad.

June 16, 1953
– Jack Hall of the ILWU and six others (the "Hawai‘i Seven") were
convicted under the Smith Act for being communists. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 16, 1976
– 10,000 students demonstrated in Soweto South Africa, protesting
against the requirement that they learn the Afrikaans language in their
schools. The uprising spread to seven other black townships. In the end,
128 were killed and 1,112 injured. By the end of the year, thousands
had died in demonstrations throughout the country including 700 black
children. (From the Daily Bleed)